Dial it down

Should we dial it down a bit?

The atmosphere?

If Latics could harness some of the frustration vented online for the JJB DW Brick on a Saturday afternoon we’d have one of the most feared atmospheres in all of the 92.

It’s been another contentious week in the world of Wigan Athletic. Following the enforced (because Latics of 2025 had no say in the matter) sale of Thelo Aasgaard and the abject performance against Peterborough Latics did show up against Lincoln City.

A Lincoln side who are chasing a play-off spot lest us forget, gone are the days of ‘We should be beating teams like this’ we are one of those teams these days.

But I digress, Jonny Smith’s first half goal looked to be the difference as Latics looked to see out the last two minutes of the game.

A game where Lincoln other than hitting the bar in the first half hadn’t really had sight of goal but Latics who were by far the better team had, and if they had taken their chances could have been two or three goals to the good.

But as with the rest of this season Latics didn’t take their chances. Shaun Maloney’s side instead made to see the game out just a goal to the good.

The referee who had whistled like the proverbial kettle left on the hob all afternoon decided the 89^th minute was high time to make himself the centre of attention and a standard grapple that you see in penalty boxes up and down the country every Saturday led to a penalty award for Lincoln.

It’s true the referee had been telling the players about this throughout the match and it was foolish or rather naive for Carragher to have his arms on the Lincoln attacker but if you’re going to give one referee you’ve got to give them all.

Sam Tickle did well to save the penalty only for Lincoln to follow up but surely it was off side, the linesman showed a complete dereliction of duty or misunderstanding to not flag for off side. On further watches the referee is paying no attention to that, he’s also not paying attention to the Lincoln players half way in to the box before the penalty is struck.

I’ve been against Var in the EFL but increasingly the referees at this level simply aren’t good enough to keep up with the modern game, if that had been reviewed by var on Saturday afternoon there is absolutely no way the goal would have stood.

Encroachment ahead of the penalty followed by a player clearly off side interfering with play, it wouldn’t have even been a consideration. The fact that the referee nor his assistant realised this shows how absurd refereeing has become in the EFL.

These are big calls, that can lead to big problems for clubs.

Yes we’re struggling at the moment but it’s not made any easier by the likes of John Mulligan who I’m glad to say along with his ‘assistants’ was given a rip roaring farewell by the usual calm and collect Springfield Stand at full-time.

So what looked to be an excellent three points quickly became a disappointing two, followed by another Saturday of abject depression.

Still we had the closure of the transfer window to look forward to. Saturday’s match saw a season ending injury to Silko Thomas which arguably means he’s played his last game for Wigan Athletic.

The problems we’ve had with injuries this season have done serious harm to our chances of achieving anything this year.

At the moment there’s a massive slice of the first team squad in the treatment room; Tyrese Francois, Matt Smith, Babba Adeeko, Dion Rankine, Stephen Sessegnon, Luke Chambers, Kai Payne and now the aforementioned Silko Thomas.

The likes of Adeeko, Rankine and Thomas were showing glimpses of their best form when they were taken out in each of those matches and it’s hugely frustrating that we haven’t seen them at their best throughout the season.

So to transfer deadline day, Maloney said he wanted his business done early and that’s what happened. He alluded to more business being done in the wake of Aasgaard’s departure and in came Darcy whilst the injury to Thomas clearly meant we needed cover in step Owen Dale of Oxford City.

Ignore the noise of the permanently disaffected and it’s a signing that ticks all the boxes.

He’s a local lad (Warrington no less) with experience of promotions with both Crewe and Oxford, an exciting tricky winger who’s coming in to his prime years.

The comments from the Oxford fans were roundly positive and he’s clearly an upgrade on Thomas who although he has done well for us this season and will have a decent career doesn’t yet have the experience someone like Dale does.

There was lots of anger towards the club, manager, owner, new MD over us not signing a striker.

Despite the manager saying they weren’t looking for a new striker. We can argue all day long whether that’s the right decision or not but the club haven’t done anything other than stick to what they said.

I personally think it’s been a half decent window, if we’d managed to keep hold of Aasgaard for another six months until the summer it would have been a great window.

There’s work to do on the pitch now, we need to get those new flair players up to speed as soon as possible and we need to start creating but more importantly converting those chances.

The winter window has set the groundwork for the summer, hopefully meaning that there isn’t yet another rebuild next summer and Maloney can start pre season with the squad as complete as possible.

In that vein contract offers have been made this week to a number of out of contract players coming towards the end of their deals, Sessegnon has triggered a contract extension whilst Jonny Smith will be offered a new deal alongside Scott Smith.

One other contract could be discussed regarding Callum McManaman, he’s had a bad time with injuries this season in contrast to last but I’d still be looking to offer him a deal if at all possible.

So it’s over to the cup this weekend, with the prices the club have put in place and a 3pm Saturday kick-off I’d be hoping we would be piling them in this weekend.

Sadly the reality seems to be that apathy will once again win the day.

Let’s be under no illusions we are the underdogs on Saturday, Fulham are a very strong Premier League side with a squad worth hundreds of millions and a manager who knows exactly what he’s doing.

But stranger things have happened. Let’s hope those who aren’t there Saturday regret that decision.

Sean Livesey

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